Students and adults alike became entranced by the spiritually intoxicating music at "Change Rocks" Monday night.

The four remaining members of the Grateful Dead reunited at the Bryce Jordan Center for an historic benefit concert raising awareness for the Obama-Biden Democratic presidential ticket.

Along with the eight-piece opening act The Allman Brothers Band, the Southern psychedelic rock band demonstrated its skill with rich instrumentation and lengthy impromptu jam sessions.

The members of the Grateful Dead, singer-guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, who haven't played together since 2004, performed a spiritual, satisfying and often vocal-less set.

The group kicked off their portion of the show with "Truckin'" off of 1970's American Beauty. The introductory chords immediately stimulated a rousing crowd response. A broad cross-section of the nearly full BJC sung along, cheered and stood up in their sets.

Songs merged into one another, spiraling together and sometimes making the audience unsure of when to applaud.

The recognizable Dead tunes included "Playing with the Band," "St. Stephen," "Unbroken Chain," and "U.S. Blues."

The bands and the political message both carried a notably grassroots tone. Considering it was a benefit concert endorsing a presidential candidate, the

political talk from the bands was kept to a minimum.

The intention was for the music to speak for itself. The Allman Brothers' first song, "Revival," had the lyrics, "People can you feel it?/Love is everywhere."

The Allman Brothers' two-hour set composed predominantly of their greatest hits and a few choice covers - Van Morrison's "And it Stoned Me" and Derek and the Dominos' "Anyday" (a band that contained the late Duane Allman). Songs like "Melissa," "Jessica" and "Midnight Rider" were dispersed throughout the repertoire.

After they engaged in several intense 10-minute jams, they encored with an epic extended version of "Whipping Post."

Meandering at times, the Allman act might have been more exciting if the set list contained a few surprises or Easter eggs for the crowd's high quotient of diehard fans.

Guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks' engulfing riffs characterized the set.

During the long bridges of instrumentation in between appearances of vocals, both of music sets allowed the audience plenty of time to ponder.

Whether that was the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers' way of encouraging people to carefully consider their options in November, it is difficult to say.

Regardless of their motives or the political impact, the long-enduring music motivated a mass audience to commit themselves to the classic sound.